November 25, 2022 by Rev. Nina Brown Johnson

“Abiding In The Field….”

Beautiful fields, prairie fields at the peak of the season flowing with wildflowers and butterflies.

Mown fields, lush green pastures as far as the eye can see just begging to be used as the ultimate reunion of love as two run toward each other to embrace.

Peaceful fields bordered by crystal clear flowing streams as sheep happily graze without a care in the world as their shepherd watches over them.

But there are other fields…. Fields of dry, brown grass withered by the scorch of the sun, patches of soil left exposed and cracked lacking the relief of gentle expected rains that did not come.

Fallow field that require the tedious backbreaking work of removing all the stone and working that ground until it can produce once again.

With the changing seasons of this life WE ARE THOSE SHEEP and those laborers. And we find ourselves in many different fields. The Prophet Jeremiah bought a filed for an inheritance, even though EVERYTHING was going to fall apart, this was the purchase of the FUTURE.

Jeremiah 32:14 : “Thus SAITH the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Take the evidences (deeds), this evidence (deed) of the purchase, BOTH WHICH IS SEALED, and THIS EVIDENCE WHICH IS OPEN; and put them in an EARTHEN VESSEL, that they may continue (last) many days. For thus SAITH the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; HOUSES AND VINEYARDS SHALL BE POSSESSED AGAIN IN THIS LAND.”

And we’ll go to another Bible account and visit Ruth, a lady who found herself in a “foreign” field and how that field held blessing beyond anything she could have imagined for her life at that time.

As she gleaned that field, working to take what had been left to feed those who were hungry, she unknowingly caught the eye of the one who owned the field!

Ruth 2:8,9: ” Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? GO NOT to glean in another field, NEITHER go from hence ( do not leave from here) BUT ABIDE HERE fast (close) by my maidens: LET THINE EYES BE ON THE FIELD THAT THEY DO REAP and go thou after them (follow them) : and have I not charged the young me that THEY SHOULD NOT TOUCH THEE? (they had been told to leave her alone and let her work ) and when thou art athirst (thirsty) GO UNTO THE VESSELS, and DRINK THAT WHICH THE YOUNG MEN HAVE DRAWN ( they were SUPPOSED to SHARE with her their water and allow her access to THEIR water jugs).

We’ll keep the advise Ruth had heeded in mind and we will journey on through the Bible and pay a visit to those who were also were also diligently minding the tasks of their field.

Luke 2:8-20 ” And there were in the same country SHEPHERDS ABIDING IN THE FIELD, KEEPING WATCH OVER THEIR FLOCKS BY NIGHT. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the GLORY OF THE LORD SHONE ROUND ABOUT THEM: and they were sore afraid.

And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And SUDDENLY there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host PRAISING GOD, and saying, GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, AND ON EARTH PEACE, GOD WILL TOWARD MEN.

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them INTO HEAVEN, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and SEE this thing which is come to pass, which the LORD HATH MADE KNOWN UNTO US. and they came WITH HASTE, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

And when THEY HAD SEEN IT, THEY MADE IT KNOWN abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

BUT Mary kept all these things, and PONDERED THEM IN HER HEART.

And the SHEPHERDS RETURNED, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.”

So that promised redemption, those open deeds, the things made known and crystal clear and those deeds that had been sealed, the birth of a King coming in a way no one could see, born in poverty to parents whose offering would be two turtle doves, the offering given by the poorest of the poor, those deeds to the inheritance of all of eternity had been kept in that earthen vessel which would be born of a virgin and in the lineage of another who obeyed the field command.

As God allowed love to blossom in that field between Ruth and Boaz, a love whose embrace led to the birth of their great-grandson who would be King David whose bloodline would be honored in the ultimate fulfillment of those deeds, those promises of OWNERSHIP of a nation and the world that would come in that earthen vessel born in that humble manger in the body of Jesus Christ.

The shepherds who were doing their job watching over their sheep AT NIGHT (I’m not even getting it to that YET, oh, but it is coming) were rewarded by the proclamation of the news to ends all news given straight BY THE VOICES OUT OF HEAVEN ITSELF!

So about those fields, had Jeremiah took it upon himself to ignore the voice of the Lord and think well, why buy a place that will be destroyed?

What if Ruth had decided that another field with kinder maidens would be more enjoyable?

What if the young men tried to run Ruth away and hoarded all the water that she was dependent on to strengthen her during gleaning?

What if the shepherds had not abided by their flock? They would have NEVER heard from heaven!

Mary kept it and pondered it, she knew who her baby was and that was enough for her.

Whatever field you find yourself in today, please stay there, if it is beautiful and fertile, let the Lord lead you and bless that beautiful place and season in your life, don’t doubt it, run through that field and embrace!

If you find yourself being urged to “purchase” what appears dead or hopeless, heed the voice of the Lord, only He knows His plans and He alone will bring life back to what APPEARS hopeless.

If your field is stone and you have worked until your back breaks and your hands bleed and you have cried so many tears that you can’t even remember the last time you smiled, DON’T GIVE UP!

I promise when that last stone is ripped from the ground and that soil is soft and

God sends those refreshing rains of spring, what you have sown also watered by all those tears is going to spring up into a harvest so plentiful and beautiful that you will rejoice and thank Him for giving you the strength to not give up.

Shepherds take heed that stay by your sheep DURING THIS NIGHT, and don’t let the water boys hoard that which is meant to be shared with those God has sent to glean the leftovers FROM YOUR FIELD and never cease to hear the voice of that heavenly host praising God, they beheld His glory but I promise you, we who are faithful will also behold Him and it will be a glory unlike any that has been as of yet but we have to be listening in our field.

HE IS THE I AM THAT IS and me and my little fire baby Φλογιζω will stay in our field and you stay in yours, you will never regret it!

Φλογίζω / NBJ 2015 Original post date: 12/12/2015 *Revisited 12/07/2019 & * 12/04/2020 & Revisited 12/17/2021 & 11/25/22

July 3, 2022 by Rev. Nina Brown Johnson

Unshakeable

“That your faith should not stand (be) in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 2:5 One of my all time favorite Bible verses is Romans 3:23, which says this: “For ALL have sinned, and come (fell) short of the glory of God.”

ALL is the key word there, ALL of us, whether we have been saved fifty years or even if we have only been saved a few days. ALL of us. It is not based on looks, character traits, morals, no of that is comes down to one simple truth.

Psalm 51:1:” Behold, I was shapen (brought forth) in iniquity: and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

This verse has nothing to do with anything to do with anyone’s mother or lineage. This verse IS all of us. ALL of us, EVERY SINGLE HUMAN ON THIS EARTH, with the only exception of this being the birth of Jesus Christ whose conception was by the Holy Ghost overshadowing Mary the Virgin and just supernaturally placing this child in her womb.

And Mary remained a virgin until after Jesus birth. Even though her had Joseph had married, that marriage was not consummated until Jesus. Matthew 1:24,25: “Then Joseph being raised from sleep did and the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not (kept her a virgin) till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.”

My sincerest desire is to address a COMMON issue facing believers today. The first being those who do believe in God but refuse to surrender to Him because they have fallen to the totally FALSE belief that in order to be saved, we must somehow “make ourselves right”.

Listen my dears, this is impossible. God put it this way to the prophet Jeremiah, 13:23: “Can the Ethiopian change the colour of his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.”

We can not change ourselves. We are what we are and to believe in God, knowing that Jesus himself said this, undoubtedly the most quoted scripture of all time, John 3:16-18: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the son of God.”

That is the secret, it is all what WE believe and if we BELIEVE in God but also BELIEVE we can never be saved through pure faith, guess what we will never be saved and that we not be because God would not save us that would mean that we would rather hold onto our guilt and shame, convinced by the enemy that we must be punished and pay a price for hat sin that we are UNABLE to pay.

It IS self-righteousness. It maybe isn’t like hypocritical self-righteousness that we find in churchgoers who look down on everyone else through the holier than thou attitudes and are a smoke in the nostrils of God, because of it. But it is self-righteous in an even worse way, it in effect saying, “Well, I know I need saved, I KNOW Jesus is real but if it all the same, I think I’ll SAVE MYSELF.”

And it can not be done. Jesus Christ IS and WILL always be the only one who came here without sin and remained sinless. As asked in Jeremiah, can ANY of us change what we are BORN as?

No, we admit, ask forgiveness and the next part is the hardest to overcome when we are new to Christ.

The first and most important fact you have to know and get so deep in your soul is this, GOD DOES NOT EXPECT ANYONE TO BE PERFECT. We will ALL have days, we will ALL sometimes stumble, Proverbs 24:16 (a):” For a just man (person) falleth seven times, and RISETH UP AGAIN…”

We are saved, we are covered by the blood but we are STILL human, still in human bodies that ARE genetically PRONE to sin.

Just as birds instinctively, meticulously build nests, baby turtles instinctively know to head out to the ocean, and as humans, we have feet that instinctively “run to destruction.” and we must ACCEPT that.

Stop TRYING to make ourselves perfect and stop trying to live up to expectations of our behavior that God NEVER placed on us and most importantly stop beating ourselves to death over the mistakes of the past or even the makes of yesterday!

The Lord IS our help. He IS our strong tower, and he IS our salvation, we are not our own and we can not be ANY of these things to ourselves.

Micah 7:7,8:”THEREFORE, I will LOOK unto the Lord: I will WAIT for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

Rejoice NOT against me, O mine enemy, WHEN I FALL, I SHALL ARISE; WHEN I SIT IN DARKNESS, THE LORD SHALL BE A LIGHT UNTO ME.”

And that mercy that does not beat us down or condemn us when we come short, we mess up, and that mercy IS for life, not just the moment of salvation.

Lamentations 3:21-23:” THIS I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It IS of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, BECAUSE HIS COMPASSIONS FAIL NOT (never end).

They ARE new every morning; GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS.”

So if you’ve been wrestling with this, just let it go. Yes, that simple, let it go. It is not God’s that is putting you through that and you alone have to change your OWN thinking and you change that by just LETTING IT GO.

Anyone who has read my testimony knows that I struggled a lot coming to Christ, mainly due to these issues, and there was quite a bit of time between the point that I like to call “trying to get saved” which means that I HAD asked, HAD prayed but I still did not feel the change that I needed, until I was delivered and filled with the Holy Ghost.

And we are all different, but I really believe this will help anyone going through this. and I think this is a really cool story and especially the timing, I am a hopeless romantic, I love Valentine’s Day and every mushy romantic thing you can think of. So Valentine’s Day 2000, my sister gave me what she said was an odd gift for valentine’s day, it was a beautiful personalized Bible, and one month later, I was filled with the Holy Ghost and Thank God, my life has never been the same.

So what she had actually given me was the greatest love story ever written and the author of that story being pure love Himself, which IS perfect for the occasion! So that is my main Bible, but prior to this I had ordered one believe it or not, from an Avon lady when I was in the process of “trying” to GET MYSELF RIGHT 🙂 many of us have been guilty of it.

Anyway, the back has a section for help and I found a heading titled “Jesus’s idea of prayer” and it is actually when they asked him how to pray and he told them the Lord’s prayer, so you know, I thought, that works!

I memorized it and would call my sister every night and ask her to pray with me and I would pray it, and even now when we pray together, we often start out with that prayer.

I was so scared trying to pray out loud and even after I was saved, if they call on me in church to testify, I was honestly so shy and scared that I would shake.

So please don’t ever think that you’re too scared, too shy, too nervous, God gives us boldness and courage AS we step out in faith in these areas. So I want to give you this very well-known prayer, but I want to break it down and show why it is essential to memorize this by heart and pray it EVERY day and how each verse can be used individually to pray over any need you may have.

Matthew 6:9-13: “After this manner therefore pray ye.

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done, in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. Amen.”

This prayer starts with acknowledging God in heavenly realm, it offers to Him the respect and honor due unto his name. Psalm 93:2:” Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting.” Isaiah 66:1:” Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool….”

Remember Jesus also told us that “Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven.” So this prayer asks for His kingdom to come for that purpose.

It asks for His will. 1 John 1:14: “And THIS is the confidence we have IN HIM, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.”

But also for His will to be done IN earth, not only ON earth but in the earth of these vessels we call bodies that became known as humans the moment He created Adam from the dirt of the ground. And it asks AGAIN for that connection between heaven and earth to be established.

Next we are seeking not only our material needs for that day, but ALSO and more importantly our spiritual needs as Jesus also spoke, during His time of temptation by the devil, “It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” And that is WHY we must LIVE by these words.

And of course forgiveness, as we forgive we are forgiven and this includes the mercy, and kindness that He shows us that we are to show others. If we forgive someone their shortcomings, or even something they owe us, or in mercy look over something that had been said or done, God will return the same to us.

This is where we get into, “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged; condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned:” Debts are not always financial or material, we can also be indebted through action and emotion.

And of course praying NOT to go into temptation, remember what he told the disciples in the garden, “Pray that ye not enter into temptation.” This is another area, we ALL can fall to temptation, again we are human. James 1:11-13: “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried (tested), he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

Let NO man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God can not be tempted with evil, NEITHER TEMPTETH HE ANY MAN. But EVERY man (person) IS tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and ENTICED.”

So the devil knows what to send your way to try to entice us away from God, so we are to pray not to go into temptation, BUT deliver us from evil, deliver us from those temptations, and also from all our hurts, pains, and sorrows, and I believe this can prayed over the multitudes on a higher scale.

And it ends with a three-fold acknowledgement, “a three fold cord is not easily broken” and this gives honor and allegiance, not to this world and the powers that be, but honor and allegiance to Him and His kingdom, as He also said to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not hence.”

Hence translating to here, but it one day be as we are told in Revelation 11:15…” The kingdoms of THIS world are become (have become) the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, AND HE SHALL REIGN FOR EVER AND EVER.”

His power, which has no rival or equal, as Jesus also said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and earth.” He expounds on the full reach of that power, Luke 12:5: “But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell: yea, I say unto you, Fear him.”

Habakkuk 2:14:”For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

And the need to ALWAYS bear that glory in mind, speaking of FUTURE New Jerusalem Revelation 21:23: “And the city had no need of the sun, neither the moon, to shine in it: FOR THE GLORY OF GOD DID LIGHTEN IT, AND THE LAMB IS THE LIGHT THEREOF.”

This prayer covers it all. of course you still need to study and learn all you can but I hope this comforts someone by helping you realize that GOD IS FOR YOU! He is ever present and ever merciful. Jesus is the only person who has died to save us from our sins, why on earth would He not help us overcome our own flesh? No one wants you to make it to heaven more that him! TRUST THAT!

Just ENJOY that salvation and rest knowing that “he who started a good work in you will finish it”!

Wishing you love, peace, and a blessed week!

Φλογιζω NBJ 2017 Original Post Date: 11/19/2017 Revisited 07/03/2022/ Rev. Nina Brown Johnson * My sister referenced in this post has since went home to be with Jesus.

December 17, 2021 by Rev. Nina Brown Johnson

“Abiding in the field….”